UPDATED: Take-Two Results: The Saga Continues….

This morning Take-Two (ttwo) announced first quarter results, which (surprise, surprise) were slightly better than the company forecast slightly less than two weeks ago, which was just about one month after the quarter’s end. Shouldn’t the company have known the number down to the penny, especially when — on its conference call at the time — it gave the exact cash number? You would think. A company spokesman says, "As of February 28th, we had just filed our 10K for fiscal 2006 and were still in the process of finalizing our Q1 results. At that time, we provided a range." (A range for everything, that is, but the cash, which they nailed.)

And for those keeping score: Two years ago, the company earned $55 million, or 81 cents a share, on revenue of a little more than $500 million; this year’s first quarter the loss was $21.5 million, or 30 cents, on sales of $277 million. Yet its stock is only about 26% lower; its market value,, 22% lower.

The beat goes on…

(P.S.: For those who don’t get alerts to my columns, a copy of the my weekend Wall Street Journal piece on Take-Two is repeated today on MarketWatch.)